Worst Case Scenarios
by handidandi
Summary: Semi-new title! Revamped! Still post Dead Giveaway. Sammy and her friends have lied and squiggled their way through school to avoid trouble. Now with more deceit being unfolded around town, more than one innocent life is at stake. Will she be able to get to the bottom of it? Or will she throw in the towel? Or get sucked into the deceitful plot, the worst case scenario yet?
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Sammy Keyes whatsoever. It belongs to Wendelin Van Draanen and I am only using the characters for a nonprofit story, only for the enjoyment of fans of the Sammy Keyes series.

**Author's note:** After much more consideration, I have decided to repost this story, make the proper tweaks to it and get the engine going on this bad baby. Anything past "Dead Giveaway" is completely out of the window in order for this fanfic to work. Without further ado, I present to you the new and improved fanfic! Originally posted 11-26-05 and revamped in 2013! Enjoy!

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**One: Prologue**

Everyone I know thinks I'm a trouble maker. Fact of the matter is that trouble goes around looking for _me_. Just when I least suspect it, someone else is in trouble and it's up to me to get to the bottom of it before the Borschman. And do I ever get an ounce of thank you? Nope, I'm still a snot nosed seventh grader to everyone. Well, I'm here to prove them wrong, 'cause everything's about to change.

Okay, not _every_thing. I still live with Grams in her Senior High-rise building, adjacent to the "lavish" Heavenly Hotel. I still wear my tattered high tops. It's just that now I own three pairs, one black-and-white, one navy blue-and-white and one that's all white. And I still go to William Rose Junior High, while trying to outsmart my snarky archenemy Heather Acosta in her plots against me (and possibly humanity). But the only thing that has changed for me is that I am now officially an eighth grader. That's right, an eighth grader at William Rose Junior High. Little did I know more was about to change for me. I just didn't know how.

I was staying over at Marissa's house for the first couple of days of school. Hey, it's not my fault Marissa went all over town looking for her new beloved hamster (her mother finally agreed to one lonesome pet and that is what she chose). You won't believe where we ended up. At the police station. Yep, all the way across town.

"Young ladies, where do you think you're going?" the police officer asked us.

"Uh," Marissa started, doing her famous McKenze dance. "My hamster got loose Officer Borsch sir."

Right then, my head snapped up. I was in the middle of tying my shoelace when Marissa says "Officer Borsch." Then, my poor head flew up and butted Bruiser in the cruiser right in his pudgy stomach. "Oomph!" he said as I rubbed my head from its sudden collision.

"Hey you! Watch what you're doing next time!" he cried out while rubbing his stomach. He took one good look at me and did a double take. "Sammy…" he addressed me oh-so formally. He sucked at being sarcastic while trying to be sincere while holding his tongue. That feigned niceness feigning sarcasm was about as noticeable as I was last Halloween when I was the Marsh Monster. But that's another story.

"Officer Borsch," I addressed with the same amount of sarcasm he mustered a while ago. It's actually Sergeant Borsch now, since he got his big promotion, but eh. I wasn't gonna easily make the transition. Maybe when he's a detective.

Pfft! Right. That's likely!

"Well?" he requested, waiting for an explanation from the both of us.

"We... we were... we were um..." Marissa couldn't quite explain herself to the likes of him. So I took over with, "Marissa's hamster got loose and we had to chase it for a while."

"And it landed you here?" he asked us.

I gulped audibly. Yes, it did. But telling him that was like telling him that Marissa and I weren't sisters after all. Wasn't believable. Not at the moment it wasn't, seeing how Marissa and I fooled him earlier last school year and we pretty much stuck to that crazy story… I think…

Anyway, he'd think we were up to something. Telling him this was gonna make him launch into a story about how he doesn't need my snooping around in his business.

"We...we were... we were," Marissa sputtered again. I had to answer in her defense.

"We really weren't trying to get into trouble Officer Borsch. Her hamster's name is Speedy, can you tell why? So, Speedy led us all the way down here. Honestly. If we had something to tell you, we would tell you. At least I would tell you." I snuck a glance at Marissa while she still did the McKenze dance with little Speedy squishing and squirming in her hands.

He stares at us like he sees double of us then finally decides on his judgment. "I'm going to drop the both of you home and hope little Speedy, so you call him, won't get away again. How's that for a bargain?"

We nod feebly and gather in his squad car. I had to go back to Grams, but could I? Nope, I couldn't tell Borsch man how I'd been living illegally with my grandma in her senior citizen building. I had to stick to my story. So, off I went to Marissa house, which is where I had to call Grams from, and I had to spend the first couple of days of school before the coast was clear.

When I finally managed to let slumber overcome me, I seriously thought about the… _stories_ I had to tell just to get to where I am today. If only some of my embellishments weren't necessary, trouble wouldn't go around looking for me, huh?

But then again, this _is_ Santa Martina. And this town definitely has had its share of freaks around here.

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**A/N:** Embarrassing fact… yes, this story was originally published in 2005. I was 15 at the time and I had just finished reading "Dead Giveaway," which is how I came up with the idea in the first place. Yeah… So, I have the original on my computer, but I'm just fixing it up one chapter at a time because I was incredibly naïve and young and… yeah. So… I hope this does the original justice. And I miss my old league of Sammy writers too. Anyways, I should be doing a paper due later today, so I just needed to fix this and then get back to that… LOL! Stay tuned for the next revised chapter… Oh yeah! And reviews would be nice, just to throw that out there.


	2. Back In School

**Disclaimer:** I own nada. Wendelin Van Draanen owns these series, so don't go suing me. I use only for my own enjoyment and to relieve boredom.

**Author's Note:** This is the second chapter, I hope y'all like it.

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**Chapter 2: Back in School**

Waking up for the first day of school was a new thing for me. No, it wasn't like I was waking up for the first day of seventh grade all over again. It was me waking up for the first day of eighth grade. I was waking up to be the type of person that I warned myself not to try to become. Let me tell you, it sent weird shivers up and down my spine. It was my last year of being in William Rose Junior High, and it felt... I don't know, _weird_.

I got up, got in the shower, got dressed, and ate breakfast with Marissa. As usual, Mikey was about up to destroying the tranquility that was established.

"Ooh, Marissa!" Mikey started with, but it only took a fling of scrambled eggs to get Mikey scrambling from the sudden barrage.

"Stupid bugger," she mumbled quietly to herself. "Sooo," she added while turning to me. All I could do was push my eggs around. "Are you nervous?"

Now, her tone of voice sent another shiver down my spine. And, it wasn't what she had said either. It was _how_ she said it. She made it sound as if I was going on a date. "What?" I asked her simply.

"Are you nervous about starting the eighth grade?" she asked me again.

I eyed her suspiciously. "Why should I be afraid to start stupid eighth grade? Knowing me, it'll probably be the exact same as seventh. See? No worries," I said, though my voice practically dripped with worry. I was sort of nervous, but I didn't let it bother me. After all, I caught up with Casey during the summer and he told me that Heather wasn't supposed to be a worry, because he knew she had changed schools.

"I don't know. I mean, I have absolute bragging rights, you have absolute bragging rights—" but I interjected before she could say another word.

"I have what?" I said while I accidently sent my poor scrambled eggs flying in her face.

"Bragging rights," she repeated herself so nonchalantly. I eyed her suspiciously as she wiped her face calmly. "Really! I mean, you and I go with high school kids. High school kids!"

"What?" This time I was in complete shock.

"I go out with Danny and you go out with Casey, right?" Marissa asked me.

I eyed her still. "I do _not_ go with Casey! You may have one, but I do not have a high school boyfriend."

"And with that attitude, you won't get one," she mumbled. I heard her anyways. I picked up what was left of my eggs and flung it at her. "Hey!" she said while shaking her head to relieve the eggs stuck in it. I snickered as I barely cleared my plate and grabbed my skateboard.

* * *

Now, I would have had a jolly ol' good time on my skateboard trying to beat Marissa if I hadn't run into someone that I wasn't expecting to run into. And when I say run into, I didn't mean pass them silently until realizing who it was. I'm talking about literally running into them. Fact is it's extremely hard to stop on a skateboard if you are going at 100 miles an hour. So, as I tried to stop and give Marissa some kind of warning, I completely did a full 360 somersault in the air and landed right on top of that person. _Then_ Marissa stops her bike.

"Ouch!" The person and I said as Marissa helped me up. One good look at the person and Marissa and I both did a double take, which was more like a quadruple take.

"Hey," he said as Marissa helped him up as well. Things got a little fuzzy.

"Wow," we both said.

"How's it goin'?" he asked us.

All of a sudden, my heat began to speed up like it had absolutely no sense and my cheeks flushed a reddish color.

"Uh," I managed while Marissa says, "pretty good."

"Uh," I said again. Marissa noticed my state of shock and elbowed me back to earth. "Hi Casey."

"Hey Sammy." He came closer and gave me a hug and a pat on the back. I was still in shock. Was this really Casey? He looked... different, way different. I mean, he grew some inches and I could practically see his biceps and triceps poking out of his shirt. And the way he hugged me made me feel like... a bubbly eighth grader. Like a love struck eighth grader.

I'm rarely love-struck! In fact… I'm _never_ love-struck!

But that was until he said something I'd secretly been hoping he would say.

He told me he liked me!

Out of the blue, he goes, "I really like you Sammy. I mean, I've been thinking about you a lot during my summer at camp. I hope you don't mind that I told people about you."

This doesn't seem like Casey at all, but I was in a daze. I knew he had way more to say, but that's all I heard, because everything went fuzzier and I fainted. Clear out of the clear blue sky fainted.

* * *

"Sammy? Sammy!" I heard a voice calling to me from a distance. I woke up in a room on a cot and everything began to focus around me. Wasn't this a sight to see? Marissa, Dot, Holly, and of course, Casey.

"Huh? What happened?" I asked softly as Marissa passed me a cup of water.

"You fainted," Dot told me while Holly just blinked at me. Then I saw Casey staring at me. I couldn't help it, I stared straight back into his clear brown eyes. Easter bunny, Easter bunny… _snap out of it Sammy!_

"Oh?" I asked in confusion.

"Well, I don't know, you were looking kinda... spaced-out and then you fainted."

"That's all? No one said anything about liking me or anything?" I looked straight at Casey when I said this. He raised an eyebrow at me in return.

"Um, no," Marissa told me. "All Casey said was 'hi, how's going?' and then you didn't say anything back until you fainted. That's all."

I must have been dreaming. Was it just me, or did I really hear the 'I like you' statement come out of Casey's mouth? I know I was _kinda_ spaced-out, but I wasn't going crazy. I know what I heard… sort of.

"Oh, uh..." I stammered. I must have looked bummed out because Marissa was giving me suggestive looks about me being bummed out about Casey not saying how much he liked me. Her looks practically screamed 'you like Casey, don't you?'

"So... I wasn't hugged?" I questioned her as I frowned.

Holly, Dot and Marissa looked at me horrendously while Casey smiled at me. That's all he did was smile. I shook my head in disbelief. Talk about a way to start eighth grade, huh?

"I did give you a pat on the back," Casey said through his cheesy old smile. I scowled in return.

Okay, in other words, I made up the whole scenario in my head? Yeah, no… I didn't think so.

Before I could brood about it any longer, Casey grabbed his own skateboard and headed towards the door. "See ya Sammy!" he called out.

"Wow," was all Holly could say after a while.

"Wicked," Dot said.

"Weird," Marissa said.

"What?" I asked them.

"Casey actually _cares_," Dot told me as if that wasn't obvious to me, which it wasn't.

"He's nothing like Heather, I told you!" Marissa gloated in her 'I told you so' voice.

"Hard to believe that he _has_ a sister like Heather," Holly told me while helping me off the creaky cot

"Yeah," was all I could say.

When I entered my new home room class, there was someone waiting for me, and it wasn't a pretty sight to behold either.

Of all people, why _her_? Why _me_?

"Nice to see you again," she said sarcastically. "_Loser_ Sammy!" She added while putting extra emphasis on 'loser' and my name.

Ugh! Someone please! Slaughter me!

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**A/N:** Things will begin to pick up a little more in the next few chapters. Stay tuned and reviews are always welcomed.


	3. A Good Start?

**Disclaimer:** Nope, I don't own the Sammy Keyes series. I really don't. If I was Wendelin Van Draanen, I would, but I'm not, so there.

**Author's Note:** Third chapter up. Might wanna take a look at that, eh? Also, thanks for reading. Enjoy

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**Chapter 3: A Good Start?**

"Hello freak!" were the exact words of my hated enemy. All I did was stare at her in shock.

"H-Heather?" I choked out.

"I see you had a good time with my brother, didn't you?" she sneered at me. I rolled my eyes in frustration.

Of all people, it had to be Heather to ruin my first day of school even further than it needed to be. First Casey practically accuses me of lying, and then he actually _lied_ to me, now I have to deal with Heather? Wasn't she supposed to be living it up in London or something?

Great, just great. I wonder what will happen next.

"Too bad he doesn't like you. I told you he'd realize what a geek you are. I told you he was only going out with you because he so wanted to annoy me," she told me. I stood in the doorway looking mighty beaten up as her cronies Tenille Tooley and Monet Jarlsberg gathered around her like a mother hen protecting her flock.

If things couldn't get worse, Marissa, Dot, Holly and the rest of the class began to file in. And file in they did; I was knocked clear off my feet and practically trampled on.

Like I said before, slaughter me somebody.

I quickly got to my feet and rushed to a seat next to Dot.

"What's the matter Sammy, can't take the school year without dropping dead for my brother?" Heather taunted me as Tenille and Monet giggled.

It wasn't regular giggle like mines and Marissa's, or Dot's, or Holly's. No, it sounded more like pigs squealing around in a pigsty.

Literally.

I almost wanted to throw up.

I was still feeling a little bit battered from that brutal trampling to insult Heather. Trust me, it woke me straight up.

"And you can't go one minute without your lonesome piggish goons hanging around you every minute?" Holly started. This was the first time I remember Holly defending me from the hot-headed red-head.

The class made a big fuss after some idiot jeered, "Ooh, Heather got burned."

As if I was in desperate need of saving, our new home room teacher came in. Or should I say our _old_ home room teacher came in.

"Mrs. Ambler?"

She gave us a small closed smile and said, "That's right. It's nice seeing you all again after the summer. I must say, you've all grown a lot."

One look at Heather and then Mrs. Ambler did her own double take. "What? What did I do?" Heather asked oh-so innocently.

Gag me.

"I thought... I thought you were... I thought." She trailed off. Poor Mrs. Ambler, even _she_ was looking forward to a year without the agony of the redhead shouting out, "stop it, or I'll sue you for slander!"

"We all thought you weren't coming back," Cassie Kuo told Heather.

"Wow, cause that would've been so _bad_," I said with obvious sarcasm. I rolled my eyes and Marissa, Dot, and Holly followed suit.

Heather gave a wicked catty smile. "I changed my mind. Some things weren't meant to be left alone." Then she glared right at _me_, like I had done something to her. Whatever.

"Okay, let's start with the pledge and then I'll make some announcements. Then we'll start on the ancient civilizations."

After we all finished the pledge and Mrs. Ambler made her announcements, she started teaching us new material for social studies. Great, just great. Could a day get any more worse?

Actually, it can. Blame Marissa and her big, floppy mouth.

* * *

After class finished, I was on my way to Miss Patil's room, who would teach us new math material. "Welcome," she said in a small, timid voice. Now I could tell, she was new at this and I felt sorry for her. The class could just walk over her like the pavement and use her like toilet tissue. But under all of that, she seemed... strict. I don't know, I can just tell these things.

"Now, I am going to start the year with factorials," she said while she wrote an exclamation point on the board. "This sign, in your average English class, is an exclamation point. But here, in your average Math class, this is the factorial sign. What this means is..." was all I heard before I blacked out…

Next thing I know, I'm on the floor again while Dot and Holly stared at me like I was a weirdo.

Marissa shifted a bit while doing the McKenze dance, Dot blinked a whole bunch and Holly's eyes sort of bugged out. "What's happening to you Sammy? I'm really worried," Dot says.

"It's obvious that she keeps thinking about her boyfriend," some moronic kid says.

"I do _not_ have a boyfriend. At all," I spat and bolted up right. Turns out, Miss Patil was still teaching the class until I said that.

She whipped around and glared straight at me. "You interrupted this very important Math class just to say you don't have a _boyfriend_?"

"N-no," I said. "I just—"

"That's quite enough; I'll speak to you after school. In detention."

Now, how could I possibly get detention? On a bright day like this? Worst, on my first day of school and I get _detention_? Oy. What's next?

Class ended, finally! And I ran right into the Damsel in Distress herself. "What'd you do, eat too much dorky foods? Did you drink some of that stupid happy juice?" Her version of happy juice was your basic average alcohol beverage.

My blood began to boil, but I didn't want any more trouble on my hands. I've gotten detention just for _fainting_. Who know what I'll get for decking Heather Acosta in her face where she downright deserved it?

Because the last thing I need is to be suspended… again.

Fine, I had absolutely no time to deal with her.

"Heather, seriously, could you come up with any more ridiculous remarks? I need to get to class and I'm already late." Now, I had said this to her as calmly as I could muster. Trouble is my voice was a bit shaken, which she read as 'I'm vulnerable.'

That's exactly what she did as she and her goons surrounded me and held me hostage near the lockers, so I had nowhere to run. "Ooh, what's wrong loser? You're stuck or something?"

A big, gathering group started to surround us, expecting a chick fight. Just before things could get out of hand, Marissa pushes her way through the crowd, followed closely by Holly and Dot.

Getting right in her face while wearing a bandana on her head, which made her seem older, Marissa came to my defense. "You've got issues with Sammy, and then you've got issues with me _and_ Dot _and_ Holly."

"OOH!" Heather taunted, "what's Missy and her gang gonna do to me? Spit in my face or something?" Heather made the mistake of pushing and poking Marissa on the chest for a while. Marissa stood, boiling hot mad, I could tell.

But do you know what she did? She spat.

On Heather's face.

And Tenille's.

And on Monet's face.

And guess what?

Tenille and Monet ran like cowards.

Then you know what else?

Marissa _punched_ Heather.

Right in the kisser.

Where she deserved it.

Boy was it hilarious. But only for a moment. Then Marissa and Heather went down and began fighting like homeless street cats, howling and yowling without a care in the world. Then Holly jumped in as Dot looked along in horror. I tried to break up the fight, but it was too much. Who knows where Marissa learned to punch, but I was damned glad she did too. For a split second.

And a punch landed me and poor Dot square in our faces too. We both went down and got tangled in this horror circle of trouble until Mr. Caan and Mrs. Ambler broke up the fight.

"You're just jealous that Sammy and I have high school boyfriends and you don't! And guess what? One of them is your brother! That's right, I said it. Your brother likes Sammy and they go out! And they've _kissed_ before. More than can be said for you Heather!" Marissa spat as she was dragged down the hall with Mr. Caan.

What a blabbermouth!

Everyone stared at me. Not because of my blue turning black eye. But because of what Marissa just said. They all looked at me like, 'really, is that true?' Some looks even read, 'Sammy's been kissed by the infamous Casey Acosta?'

Oh, great. More trouble. And it's only the first day. Soon, I would come to realize, that it was only the start of my troubles.

* * *

After school, I went right into Miss Patil's room for detention. I immediately spotted Marissa, Dot, Holly, and Heather already in there. Let me tell you, my heart skipped one too many beats.

"Now, let's settle everything right here and right now," she said to us. This time, her voice sounded brasher than before, like she had some settled mucus down there. It sent chills down my entire body.

"Well," Marissa started but was interrupted by Heather's crying. Why was she crying? She's the one that gave me the black eye and she sat there _crying_?

Whatever.

"M-Miss Patil. M-Marissa started it. You can ask anyone, they'll tell you. She...s-s-she pushed me first!" she explained while flinging tears from her eyes. I rolled my eyes while Holly shook her head in disbelief. We were all thinking the same thing; she was cheating her way through punishment.

Now, this isn't the first time Heather's faked her way through trouble. The first time made everyone think I was a juvenile delinquent. Which I am not.

"And then Holly hit me too!" she added.

Holly jumped right out of her seat, knocking it over in the process, and squared off in Heather's face. "That's a downright lie and you know it!" Holly screamed at Heather. "You _so_ pushed Marissa first. You know what? I regret not listening to Sammy in the first place about you. You are the sickest, vilest, most ridiculous person I've ever met in my life!" Soon, they were both squaring off in each other's face.

Like magic, Heather went from sad to huffing and puffing like a bull. Then you know what she does? She pushes Holly and comes charging at me.

No one but me.

Now, I had said absolutely nothing during this whole thing and I was minding my own business and here she comes running in her little click-clacking heels at me. I got up and simply moved to the side, which caused her to slip and slide and skid into a desk.

Serves her right.

But only as I was thinking that, Miss Patil came charging at me also.

Grabbing me by the ear, she said, "I'm telling everyone about how disrespectful you are, you little trouble maker. I'm telling Mr. Caan on you!" I'm telling you, she sounded so much like such a little tattling kindergartner that I busted up completely.

There I was, laughing away while my ear is getting pretty toasty and everyone with the exception of Heather ogled incredulously. "What?" I asked through a fit of giggles while Heather is seriously bawling her eyes out. I didn't really care at the moment, so tug away lady.

She pulled me out of the classroom and straight for Mr. Caan's office. I could tell he didn't like being interrupted from his 'important' call to be bothering with this now. Wow.

"What is the problem this time Miss Patil?" Mr. Caan asked exasperatedly.

"This little girl— " _Tug_, _tug_, she pulled my ear, "keeps making trouble with another girl in detention," she said to him. He glared at her as she glared at me. I just stared blankly at him.

Heaving a long and heavy sigh, Mr. Caan said, "Thank you. I'll straighten this out very soon for you." She nodded her thanks and left the office.

Tick-tock-tick-tock. The time just seemed to fly by and not one word was said. Finally, after that long and awkward silence, Mr. Caan said, "What did you do this time Sammy?"

"All I was doing was sitting down and minding my own business. Then Heather practically comes charging at me and I moved. It's not my fault that she got tangled in the chairs. And it's certainly not _my_ fault, _or_ Marissa's, _or_ Dot's _or_ Holly's fault this whole mess started. Marissa was only defending herself from Heather and her friends and the rest of us got tangled in the fight." I took a deep breath and continued, "So, Mr. Caan, could you spare us and please let us get out of detention?"

He looked at me like I just swallowed the biggest bumblebee in the world. Then, "Get your stuff from the classroom. You, Marissa, Dot, and Holly are free to go. As for Heather... I'll be speaking to her very shortly."

"Really?" I said as my eyes bugged way out.

"Sure, whatever. Now get out of my office," he said. As I inched towards the door, I heard him mumble, "That freaking lady is about to drive me up the wall with her whining and complaining."

I laughed as I skipped down the hall to retrieve my backpack and my friends and explained the situation to Miss Patil. Do you know what she does this time?

She scowled at me. Then got up and chased the four of us down the hall. I don't know what happened to this lady, but we ran like alley cats down the hallway and out of the school.

As soon as we got about a good three miles from the school near the mall, we stopped and panted for breath. "That lady is crazy!" Holly said to us.

"Y-yeah. She like, she... I can't _breathe_!" Marissa said as she started to pant for breath.

"Marissa? Marissa!" I said as she fell to the ground.

Sure, she may have caused some trouble in school, but she's my best friend, I couldn't let her go down like this.

"Marissa!" Dot said as tears prickled her eyes.

"We have to take her to the hospital or something!" Holly yelled at us. So, we started screaming around, shouting for someone to pay some kind of attention to us. And guess who did?

Casey.

"Hey Sammy," he said. My cheeks immediately turned red, but I was focused on my best friend.

"Casey! This isn't the right time for me to talk. I've gotta take Marissa to the hospital and... And... And— " I said to him, but he shushed me up with his finger.

"I've got you Sammy," he said oh-so calmly. How can he be so calm at a time like this? Then, just as I was pondering this, he rumbled in his pocket for something and found it.

A marker. That's right, a stinking marker. Do you know what he did with the marker?

He pushes it in front of Marissa's nose.

I see that Marissa starts to stir a little bit and her eyes went open.

"We need to take her to the hospital!" Holly screamed. Then her face softens a bit when she sees Marissa sit up groggily. "Oh," is all she says.

"But you're right. We do need to take her to the hospital." So, Casey got one of his friends to help us carry Marissa to an ambulance that finally came and we all rode to the hospital together.

I sat next to Casey, who sat next to Dot, who sat next to Holly, who sat next to Casey's friend from school (his name was Morgan).

When we got to the hospital, I called Grams and explained the whole situation to her. She was very worried, I could tell. Not about me, but about Marissa.

We all waited outside of the hospital room, waiting for the nurse or the doctor to tell us what was wrong with Marissa. I hoped she was okay. I mean, what would my life be without Marissa? She's my best friend, my adventures would be nothing without her. Pretty soon, I was starting to pant for air myself, so I had to take a few deep breaths and sit down, seeing how I was pacing away and burning a hole in my high-tops.

But I looked up at that moment and did a double take. And trust me, if Marissa could see this person, she'd do a double take and she'd _still_ end up in the hospital.


	4. And So It Begins

**Disclaimer:** Sammy Keyes belongs to me not. If it was, I wouldn't be on . No, scratch that, that's a lie… I probably would be on just to mess with the audience a bit.

**Author's Note:** I hope you enjoy this chapter.

**Chapter 4: And So It Begins**

* * *

"Hi Danny," I said.

He looked so sad that I thought he was actually gonna cry. But it only lasted for a second. "What happened to Marissa? How come she's in the hospital?" he wanted to know, completely brushing off my politeness.

"I don't know. She just seemed really lightheaded when I came to her," Casey explained. "Then Sammy and her friends had to take her here." Holly and Dot waved shyly at him. My cheeks began to fire up as he said his next comment, "If it wasn't for Sammy, I don't know what would have happened to Marissa." Holly and Dot gave me suggestive looks as my cheeks started to heat way up.

I got up and paced another hole in my high-tops. "Sammy, calm down. Seriously, do you really wanna burn a hole in your high-tops?" Casey asked me with that stupid smirk on his face. To avoid looking at him and blushing like a maniac, I kept pacing around aimlessly.

"Marissa can see you now," the nurse told us as we began to pile in the room where Marissa was staying.

"Hey Missy," Danny said to her.

She was lying down silently up until that point. Then she bolted upright and her eyes bugged out a bit.

"Hey Danny," she said. Then she got up and gave him a hug and a little kiss on the cheek. This little gesture made me think about that situation with Heather and what Marissa started earlier.

See, this isn't the first time Marissa told people about Casey kissing me. She did the same thing back in March, only because he really did kiss something of mines, but it sure wasn't what you may think it is. He only pecked my hand, only because he was Sir Lucan, Knight of the... something. I didn't really want to remember because I didn't want to sound like I was… how you say, love struck?

Yeah, that's not how I wanted to sound at all.

Anyhow, Marissa and Danny chatted amongst themselves while Marissa blushed and Danny was smiling. Was this for real? Was Marissa serious when she said that she had a high school boyfriend? Man, this bites the dust so hard. Wait, no it doesn't. I don't like Casey like that. _Stop that_!

"So, you get to come home tomorrow, right?" he asked her.

"Yeah, but I don't have to go to school tomorrow," she told him.

"What?" Holly, Dot and I practically shouted at her.

"My mom said I don't have to," she told us.

Great, this is like death by junior high embarrassment.

No, it was way worse than that. I'd have to put up with Heather's stupid cattish remarks. This reminds me...

"Hey Casey," I said, slapping him on the back. He sputtered a bit. "You told me that Heather wasn't going to be in William Rose Junior High any more. Well, guess what? Part of the reason why Marissa is here in the first place is because we were running from a teacher in detention. And guess what else? Part of the reason why we were _in_ detention was because your sister was picking on all of us!"

"But my mom said that she would transfer Heather into Santa Martina Junior High, or Brewster," he told me. I brooded some while pacing one more hole in my shoes. "I... I... I didn't know. How did she even pull this off?" he wondered. Then he begins to pace along side of me. "Maybe my mom changed her mind and thought she should finish her studies where she had started it."

"Stupid Heather trying to ruin my life. She'll be the death of me, really!" I said.

"She is so spoiled by my mother. Good thing my dad knows better than that," he said to himself.

"She seems to get everything she wants, which she doesn't even deserve! That's not fair!"

"She'll get hers someday," Casey said.

That really got to me for some reason because I shouted, "When will that stupid day comes when she gets the most brutal payback in her life? Everything negative that seems to go her way gets bounced off by this invisible force!"

Everyone turned to look at me. "Don't worry Sammy, everything will blow over," Dot tells me. Then she grumbled, "Someday."

"That's it!" I yelled, stomping my foot on the ground. "I can't _wait_ for _some_day! I want her to get what she truly deserves within the week she tries to make my life a living hell!"

I ran out of the hospital at a fast pace, escaping the yells of the staff and the questioning looks of my friends. They didn't, no… they _couldn't_ understand what a typical day with Heather was like… except maybe Casey. But my thoughts will never change; he will always and forever be an Acosta, tied to my worst enemy by blood. I don't know what made me trust him in the first place, but I was starting to regret my decision.

* * *

I ran all the way to where I had stashed my schoolbooks and my skateboard and just took off to the Senior High-rise. My work for today was over, and so was my stupid relation… I mean, _friend_ship with Casey Acosta. He led me to think I was going absolutely crazy, and now he expects me to believe that Heather was really supposed to transfer out? That was my escape ticket out of Gossip Town. But no, she had to be there to stick around.

Eventually, everything got to me and as soon as I had climbed up the fire escape and entered the apartment building, I gave Grams the biggest hug you could imagine me giving her, collapsed on the couch, planted my head on the couch pillow and bawled my eyes out. Dorito crawled out from his hiding space and landed on my back in an attempt to comfort me.

You have to understand, the last time I cried this hard was when my mom told me that I was turning thirteen instead of fourteen.

"Samantha! What's wrong? Did you have a bad day at school?" Grams asked me softly while rubbing my back. I just nodded against the couch. "Do you want to talk about it?" I shook my head. "Okay, I'll just get dinner started then, okay? I'll make Macaroni and cheese with salsa." I smiled at the last part, but then I remembered who told me about mac-and-cheese with salsa in the first place. And he was the one person I couldn't stand at the moment. I wanted nothing to do with him now.

"Grams?"

"Yes Samantha?" she asked as she just pulled down a box of elbow pasta.

"I don't want Macaroni and cheese. I want..." I don't believe I was actually saying this, but here goes... "Your famous fish and rice. Please Grams?"

She stared and gaped at me. Then shut her mouth, only to stare and gape some more. "Really, what's wrong? You _never_ want my fish and rice."

"I know. I had a really bad day at school today." Then I proceeded to tell her about the fainting part and how I thought Casey thought that I was imagining things. I skipped the part about the detention, because she already knew about that. Then I added about Casey misleading me about Heather transferring schools and then landed right back at William Rose.

"My, my. That's quite a day you had today, dear," Grams told me reassuringly.

"Yeah, and things are about to get worse, I can tell you that," I told her sadly. After dinner was cooked and we ate, I sat on the couch and thought about everything that went on. And the more I thought about it, the more I felt that Heather really didn't belong at William Rose. I fell asleep without much of a care in the world.

* * *

I woke up the next day around 5 o'clock in the morning and began to brood some about this stupid situation. Then I brooded about my trust with Casey and how I felt he was leading me to some crappy alleyway of trouble. Then, I began to brood about how Marissa wasn't even going to be in school with me to face this hearty wrath I was going to face very soon. A wrath she'd manage to cause, but nonetheless…

In the end, I brooded about simple unchangeable things such as why the sky was blue and why the earth seems to orbit the sun instead of the sun orbiting the earth. Don't ask, that's how broody I was.

Anyhow, I showered and got dressed and ready for school. I ate some of Gram's famous oatmeal and left the house earlier than expected.

I got into home room with about ten minutes to spare. After I had dropped my things off in Mrs. Ambler's room, I paced around it for some time and brooded even more about the stupid things that people said last year.

_"Lovebirds Mrs. Ambler? How adorable!"_

_"You gotta dump the dead weight if you wanna get anywhere around here."_

_"My brother says you're a liar. Says he'd rather kiss a codfish!"_

_"Hey, loser. What are you doing here with a baby, huh?"_

Okay, okay, fine. Granted, all of that stuff was things that Heather said to me last year, but it sure did make me even more broody than ever.

I didn't even notice that it was time for class to start until I heard Mrs. Ambler tell me to sit down and stop pacing her classroom. According to her, I was 'burning a hole in the ceiling of the people below us.'

Whatever.

I glowered and sat in my seat and brooded for a couple of minutes more before she lead the roll, the pledge and made her usual announcements. Then she went on and on about some more ancient civilizations and that was the end of class.

I went to math classroom and saw Ms. Patil planning her lesson for today, which were on factoring algebraic equations and defining "X." As if that wasn't enough when Mr. Tiller taught us math. Oy.

"Now, to eliminate this y-value, of course, you have to find what the x-values are," Ms. Patil explained as kids frantically jotted down notes in their notebooks. "Any questions?" she asked. Then she looked straight at Holly. I could practically hear Holly gulp from her end of the classroom.

"What does this have to do with factorials?" I unexpectedly blurted out. Great, I was heading for another detention on my hands, wasn't I?

"Why, whatever do you mean dear Samantha?" she said while her voice not only dripped, but _leaked_ with absolute sarcasm.

"Well, yesterday, you were teaching us about factorials, and now you're here teaching us substitution? Isn't that 9th grade math material?"

"Well," she sputtered for a minute before saying, "I think I know what I am teaching this class, Samantha. So, if you have a problem with my teaching methods, I believe you should take this up with the Vice Principal, or better yet, the Principal herself. Right?"

So, you can imagine how broody I got during the remainder of the class. I went straight to science where Ms. Rothhammer was waiting for us with petri dishes and some frogs. Immediately, I knew something bad was coming our way, I just couldn't quite put my finger on it.

"W-what are we gonna do today Coach?" Dot asked her with a slight shake to her voice.

"_We_," she said with a bright smile on her face, "are going to dissect frogs."

I _knew_ it.

See, Ms. Rothhammer is one of the best science teachers in the school. If anyone can dissect a frog in under half a minute, it would be her. Plus, she plays hardball with science. Probably because she's the coach for the school's softball team as well.

"Oh, gross!" Half the class groaned. Some moron said how cool it was gonna be. I knew for sure that Holly looked completely terrified and grossed out at the same time, while Dot looked like she was gonna hurl any minute.

Tawnee Francisco looked horrified. "Where's the school spirit? We're supposed to be bullfrogs for crying out loud! Why do we have to dissect them?" she whined. It was enough whining to shatter a glass into millions of pieces.

Anyhow, so, there we were, dissecting our poor school mascot (ribbit, ribbit). I got to brooding about that. Just as I was finishing brooding about that, Ms. Rothhammer said something that made me jump clear out of my seat.

I had to partner up with Heather.

Of all people, this very own Heather Acosta. _Heather_? Boy, this day was getting worse by the minute.

"Hi Sammy," she said cheerfully. That was enough to make me brood and gag.

"Leave me alone," I said quietly.

"But... I'm your partner," she said with this ridiculous smile on her face. I know Heather by now, she only smiles like that when she's about to poke me in my butt with a safety pin or she's about to steal something from me. I scanned her face with a scowl on mine and decided.

She's up to something.

"Yeah, I've noticed," I said to her. I rolled my eyes while Holly and Dot gave me sincerely sorry looks.

Oy!

After Ms. Rothhammer gave us the instructions, we began to dissect the poor frog.

"No, you can't do it that way! You have to put the cutter at an angle _stupid_!" Heather told me while I was trying my hardest to concentrate on not hurting the poor frog too badly. Don't blame me, I felt sorry for it. It was so young, so innocent, so...

"Pay attention to what you are doing!" she yelled at me for the last time.

"What do you want from me, you little brat? I'm doing the best I can to put up with the likes of you and I can't concentrate if you're busy screaming in my ears you know! If you think you're so great, why don't you dissect the stupid frog?" I yelled at her.

"Quiet please!" Ms. Rothhammer told us. I frowned and then glared at Heather. She grinned at me sheepishly.

"Fine," she said oh-so simply. She took the knife, held it 'at an angle,' and began to cut the legs off of the frog oh-so nicely. She put them aside and gave me another cattish smile. I glowered at her.

Then, just when I wasn't looking, Heather put the four frog legs down the back of my shirt. I knocked over my lab chair and jumped about ten feet in the air, screaming at the gross, slippery frog legs. It traveled down my back, and into the back of my pants. I screamed some more.

"Samantha! What is going on?" Ms. Rothhammer asked while everyone stared at me like I swallowed the legs. But I didn't, they were in my _pants_!

"AAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I continued to scream as I grabbed my skateboard and book bag and I hurried out of there!

I ran out of the front door, slammed my skateboard on the concrete and rode at a fast pace. I was going so fast that everything seemed to be a blur to me. So, when I bumped into a blur, I wasn't so surprised. But when I looked up to see who the blur was, anger flowed inside of me like molten lava, just about to explode.

"Sammy? What are you doing out of school?" he asked me.

"I could ask you the same thing," I said tightly while I grabbed my skateboard and began to skate again.

"I just wanted to know if you were all right from the other day," Casey said.

Temporarily forgetting my situation, I rounded on him. "Why do you care?" I yelled as I turned back around and picked up the pace on my board.

I realized that he was following me while I was headed to the Senior High-rise, so I stopped short, turned around and headed opposite Broadway to Hudson's house.

I really like Hudson. When I'm feeling really down, he's always there to help me. It doesn't matter that he's seventy-two and has gray eyebrows and thinning hair; what mattered was that he was my friend and he could help me with the even slightest problems.

"Hudson!" I called out when I reached his porch. His porch is my favorite spot in the world. I do some of my most intense thinking while sipping some iced tea and eating his mega maple upside down cake.

"Sammy! What a wonderful surprise!" he said to me. I kicked up my board. "Are you in trouble?" he asked as I gasped for air.

"Yeah," I gasped. "Can I use your bathroom?"

"Sure," he said and continued to eat cake.

I ran into the bathroom and pulled off the legs from my pants, washed my hands and went back outside.

Hudson had a glass of iced tea and a generous slice of cake waiting for me. I sat down and told him the whole story about how Casey told me that Heather wasn't going to be in my school anymore, but then she came back. Then I told him about our new math teacher and how crazy she was as she chased us down the hall. Then I told him about Marissa not being in school because of her little incident. I finalized it with how Heather stuffed two pairs of frog legs down my pants and I left school because of that.

"So, you're supposed to be in _school_?" he asked me.

"Yeah, but I can't go back there! I don't even care if I get suspended. Gives me all the more reason not to go back to that... that... zoo!" I said angrily. I noticed that Hudson was very distant and looking straight behind me. "Hudson?"

"How are you doing?" Hudson said. At first, I thought he was being delusional, but when I turned around, I saw Casey panting for breath.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him rudely.

"I've been trying to ask you if you were mad at me from yesterday, but you were going too fast," he said. I scowled at him.

"What do you think?"

He stared at me like I was crazy. "Okay, what did Heather do this time?"

"You know, you're just like her in every way. Sneaky and deceiving. I shouldn't have trusted you at all," I told him.

"What did I ever do?" he asked me.

"You told me that she wasn't even _going_ to be in William Rose anymore, but I got detention because of her. And she stuffed frog legs down my pants."

"That's cruel," he said.

I snorted and shook my head in disbelief. "I bet you told her to do that, didn't you?"

He stared at me. "Why would I do that? I'm not like her at all."

"Sammy, don't you think you're jumping to conclusions a little bit?" Hudson asked me.

I glared at the both of them. "I'm leaving," I said. I know I was being a little irrational, but could you really blame me?

Sheesh! Boys! You think you know them, but they always surprise you in the end.

I hated it.

"Sammy! Hold on a minute!" Casey called after me. I stopped short. "Sammy, I think we need to talk. Do you want someone to talk to?"

"Yeah!" I shouted while tears sprang out of my eyes, "my best friend in the whole world!" And with that, I left both Casey and Hudson in the dust. Guilt panged through me for a minute, but I was just _way_ too glum to give it a second thought.

I hung a left on Morrison Street and headed down East Jasmine to Marissa's house. More like a mansion. Her rather _big_ mansion.

"Yeah, sure, come on in Sammy," Mrs. McKenze told me. "Marissa's been asking for you all day. She's in her room." She let me inside and I went to Marissa's room.

"Thanks Mrs. McKenze," I told her.

"Ooh! Sammy, guess what?" was the greeting that I got from Marissa when I set but one foot inside of her room.

"What? What happened?"

"Billy said that Danny said that Casey is always bragging about you in his classes," she told me. I toed the carpet on her floor and hoped that she wouldn't notice how red my face was turning. "Isn't that like, totally cool?" she asked me.

"No, it isn't. As a matter of fact, I hate Casey right about now," I told her. As expected, her eyes bugged way out.

"But... but why?" she asked me.

"I can't stand him right now. He accused me of 'slander,' as her royal rudeness would put it. Then the Mistress of Meanness dumped two pairs of frog legs down my back. That's right Marissa; we had to dissect a frog in science. Lucky you. After that, I just left school and went to talk to Hudson, right? Guess what he does? He blows me off completely and says 'Sammy, don't you think you're jumping to conclusions a little bit?' Pfft, whatever," I said to her.

"Man, you sure had some day. Do you know what I did all day?" she asked me. I shook my head no. "I had to babysit Mikey today. This was insanely crazy, because I got like, _no_ sleep whatsoever."

"I'd take babysitting Mikey over dealing with Heather any day," I told her.

She considered this for a second before saying, "Yeah. I guess he's not _so_ bad. He's just… annoying." I nodded in agreement.

"Marissa? Sammy? Someone's at the door for you!" Mrs. McKenze shouted out to us.

"Okay!" we shouted back.

Marissa and I raced for the door and I hoped and prayed that it wasn't Casey or anything like that. But the case was much worse than that could ever compete to be.

"Officer Borsch!" we said in unison.

"Sammy, Marissa, I'm afraid I have very bad news for you," he told us seriously. You can imagine how much our eyes bugged out when we saw Holly trailing behind him and sniffling and crying.

"Holly, what's wrong?" I asked her softly.

"M-m-m-m-m-Meg, V-v-v-v-Vera, s-s-s-s-snatched. Anonymous person robbed... worried so m-m-m-much!" she struggled through her tears.

"What?" the two of us asked her.

"What she means is this: Meg and Vera were snatched from the Pup Parlor this afternoon. The anonymous person robbed the register and some puppies from the store. Now she's worried because they're her legal guardians and she has nowhere else to stay." He looked from us to Holly. "Is that right ma'am?" Holly just nodded, too traumatized to talk. Trust me, I was just as affected as Marissa was.

I guess we have a kidnapper on the loose.

* * *

**A/N:** Reviews are very nice, indeed they are. Please let me know how you're feeling about this so I can know how to proceed and stuff like that. Also, this is where everything starts to pick up a little in pace, so you'll wanna stay in tune with that. For now, I bid you all adieu!


	5. Lady Lana's Lie

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Sammy Keyes. The plot is mine, but the characters aren't, okay people?

**A/N:** So, since I wrote this _way_ back in the day, I had a different theory for who was supposed to be Sammy's dad was. As aforementioned, anything after Dead Giveaway is completely out of the water. So just try to keep this in mind while you read this chapter, okay people? Thanks. Now… ONWARD!

* * *

**Five: Lady Lana's Lie**

We followed Officer (excuse me, _Sergeant_) Borsch to the police station, all of us not saying anything at all. Marissa and I snuck the occasional glances at Holly. Boy, did she seem distraught.

When we got there, he directed us to a seating place and told us to stay put until he came back. Which felt like _hours_, let me tell you. When he finally _did_ come back, he gave us the mug pictures to look at, hoping we would find the muggers. I wanted to say, "Fat chance!" But Holly was already a wreck. Her hair was plastered to her head, her face was tear-streaked and her eyes were bloodshot.

"I'm telling you, they wouldn't be in the prisoner's book. The guy or girl had full body suits and masks on their faces," Holly told him sadly.

"Yeah, and if it were up to me," I piped in, "I'd go and look for the people already."

"But Sammy, many people could fit the perps' description," Marissa popped in.

"So? Holly, did you get a sample of the person's voice?" I asked her. She shook her head frantically.

"They had one of those voice changing devices, I know it for a fact," she told us.

"So? The person could have given themselves away somehow," Marissa said to me. That got our bickering fired up.

Holly said she didn't get a sample because she came in too late. I made the point to ask her if she saw anything at all. Marissa said, "Of course she did, or she wouldn't have known that Meg and Vera were snatched in the first place."

"But still, she could have been there long enough to hear someone speaking, saying something like, 'here, let's get them in the truck' or something. Right?" I said.

Oops.

"Oh, Sammy!" Holly wailed, "You can't be possibly thinking that, can you? Remember the… the thing with the… the cats? A-a-and the way they were using them f-for bets and stuff like that?"

"Okay, let's not bring that up," Officer Borsch warned us. Way back in April, he played this freaky El Gato dude, and it almost cost him his life.

"Sorry," I said remorsefully. "Okay, but seriously, think about it though. I wonder, what would make the kidnappers snatch Meg and Vera in the first place? They must have something that he… or _she_ may want."

"Like what, money or something?" Marissa asked me.

"Probably, or maybe a cute little dog," Holly said to us. I gave them doubtful looks. "What?" she asked me.

"We need a different motive, right Officer Borsch?" I asked him.

I could have sworn that he bared his teeth at me. Nonetheless, he said, "Sammy's right. Well, they already robbed the cash register after the fact to throw us off. But why take Meg and Vera?" This caused Holly to start in a fresh round of sobs all over again. She slammed her head on the table and cried her eyes out. Whoever was doing this probably wanted a way to torture Holly, and they've succeeded at that.

Whatever it is, their motive or whatever, it's not a nice one. And I have a feeling that things are only gonna get worse.

* * *

I knew it, because the very next day at school, I had to face Heather, first thing in the morning. What bad luck already.

"What Heather!" I told her meanly before she got a chance to utter a syllable.

"Hi loser, I was just wondering…"

"NO! Leave me alone!" I yelled at her. Everyone paused to turn around and look at me. "What? Go back to your business, all of you! And Heather, LEAVE ME ALONE!" I turned abruptly and proceeded to homeroom.

"What was _that_ about Sammy?" Marissa asked me.

"You know, I forgot about that little rumor that you started yesterday. About me and Casey being a _couple_?" I told her.

"Oh." Marissa tugged at her collar guiltily. "Oops! I'm sorry Sammy, really! I was just mad because Heather thinks she could get everyone's hopes up about her leaving, then tricks us all by showing her smug little face here again. Then she has nerves to act like she's the William Rose Junior High School Queen. Oy!" she told us.

I snuck a glance at Holly and noticed bags under her eyes. I walked over to her and sat down next to her. "Holly, did you sleep any last night?"

She shook her head at me. "You will never believe the dream I had last night…" she began, but Mrs. Ambler walked into the room just as the tardy bell rang.

"Okay, everyone, stand up for the pledge. C'mon, everyone, after me." She led the pledge and sat down. Everyone looked at her like 'what, no announcements?' "C'mon, let's get on with it all." Then she told us about the Mesopotamian Civilization and how it was significant to ancient history and blah, blah, blah was all I heard. I've never seen Mrs. Ambler so frustrated or cranky like this before, but it was putting us _all_ in a weird mood. For what it was worth, this was the worst class period _ever_.

After history (ugh!), we had math with Miss Stupid Patil. When she was in the middle of teaching us equations and formulas and how to solve for them (is she even following the curriculum?), guess who shows up in the middle of her dulling lecture?

Heather.

And you know what she says?

Miss Patil just tells her to take a seat and look on with someone. Unfortunately, that someone was me.

Just what I needed.

"Hi Sammy, let me see your notes," she asked, or rather _demanded_ with that ridiculous smile on her face. That same stupid catty smile she gave me right before she stuck me in the butt with a sewing needle back in the seventh grade.

Okay, I have _got_ to get over that.

Instead of just doing that, I shot my hand up in the air, waving it back and forth, hoping, and just _praying_ that Miss Patil will at least give me a chance.

"Yes, Samantha Keyes?" she addressed me meanly.

"I need to go to the bathroom," I told her. She snarled at me and continued to write on the board. "Miss Patil, I'm.. I'm… I'm… I'm…" I stuttered, throwing my hands to my stomach and holding it there. I gave Marissa a sly wink as she caught my drift.

"Miss Patil, Sammy's gonna barf!" she yelled.

Miss Patil whipped around and looked at me. I must have really looked green, because even Heather said, "Miss Patil, you should let Sammy use the bathroom, she looks sick. Ew, she's gonna barf on me!" Boy was I hoping for _that_.

Miss Patil waved her hand as to signal 'go, get out of my class,' and I ran out of there ASAP. Trouble is, running actually did make me feel green inside, because I wasted no time scrambling to the bathroom.

You don't wanna know what happened in there.

When I got out of the bathroom, still holding my stomach and feeling a little green around the edges, I tried to make it back to class. But guess who I ran into on my way there?

Nope, not Heather this time.

Yeah, I did.

I ran right into Casey, who was supposed to be living it up in Santa Martina High.

"Hi Sammy," he said to me. I glared at him.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him none-too-pleased.

"I'm supposed to be dropping off something for Heather," he told me matter-of-factly.

"Oh," was all I said.

I went around him to get back to class, but he took my arm and swung me back around so I ended up facing him. And his eyes. Chocolate fountain eyes. _Stop it!_ "Look, I'm sorry about what happened to Holly's guardians, and I'm sorry about what happened when we were in the hospital with Marissa. I didn't mean to say what I said, and if I offended you…" he trailed off.

I stood impatiently, tapping my foot at him. "So, what do you want me to say? You want me to forgive you for being Heather's brother? Do you want me to forget about all the times that you helped me and…" I trailed off, realizing how ridiculous I was being. "Okay, this is awkward…" I said slowly.

"Fine, if you want to keep acting like that then be my guest. I _know_ I didn't do anything, but I figured that maybe if I apologized, to you, you'd act just a little more grown up than how you're acting right now. But no, you just made my sister's point about you," he said to me as he stalked off to the office.

Was I living in a reverse reality world or what? First, Heather's trying to be nice to me like I forgot how bratty she was; now Casey's being mean to me?

"Heather's in Miss Patil's math class by the way," I said to him as I went in the opposite direction. I walked back slowly to the classroom as I felt twenty-eight pairs of eyes on me. "What?" I asked.

I took my seat and went back to doing my work. On cue, Casey walked into the door. I felt everyone stare back and forth at Casey and me. My face flushed.

"Yes Casey?" Miss Patil asked gently. Twenty-eight gasps filled the room as the shock sank in that Miss Patil knew Casey somehow.

"I need to give Heather something," he said to her as he walked over to Heather's chair, which, by the way, was right next to mines. I saw him hand her some lunch money and a brown bag. But then the strangest thing happened.

He handed me a note. From a first glimpse, I saw that it was decorated with silly borderlines made up of my name. Heather stared at me as I shakily proceeded to open the note. It said exactly this:

"Dear Sammy,

I really like you, a lot. Ever since the first day we met. But then you found out that Heather's my sister. I'm very sorry about that, but I keep trying to assure you that I'm nothing like her. Please, as if I _want_ to be associated with her. The only things we share are parents.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is that I feel that you shouldn't have to worry about Heather being mean to you anymore, because my dad gave her an ultimatum. Either she compromises with you or she has to move to another school where she doesn't have to worry about you at all. I guess you can figure out what choice she made, you're a smart girl.

"Anyhow, this letter is about you Sammy. I hate it when you're mad at me like this. We're friends and we should be able to work out our differences. My sister shouldn't have to be in the way of this. If she has a problem with us hanging out, then that's her problem. Like I said before, we are nothing like each other, so you can't really expect us to act the same way as each other.

"There is one more thing I feel I should tell you. Heather told me about what Marissa said about us."

At this moment, I looked up at Marissa and scowled at her. Great, now Casey knows. I continued to read the letter as Heather's face turned redder and redder by the passing second.

"Actually, I have to admit, I wouldn't mind being your boyfriend, strictly only if you want me to be. I really do like you Sammy. You're sweet, smart, fun to hang out with, and most of all, pretty. So, what I'm asking you is, will you at least consider being my girlfriend? If you say no, I'll understand, but if you say yes, that great! But I kinda need an answer by precisely October 28 of this year, because that's when my school is having a Halloween dance and I would really appreciate it if you went with me there, you know, kinda like an escort? Well, I hope I get a chance to talk to you soon, and I hope you'll forgive me by then.

Love, Casey A."

I stared at the letter as I read it over and over again. Finally: "This cannot be happening!" Heather and I exclaimed. Twenty-seven heads snapped up to the right hand section of the room.

"Lower your voices!" Miss Patil said harshly. I rolled my eyes at her. Heather just continued to gape at the letter and me.

"Casey's only telling you this because he wants to get on my nerves. There is no way he will ever like you Sammy Keyes. Mark my words," Heather told me while scowling. Whatever. I rolled my eyes at her and stuffed the letter in my pocket with care. The bell chose to ring at that moment. I, along with others, scrambled out of the room. As close as I was to freedom, someone pulled me back.

"The next time, Samantha, you decide to disrupt my classroom with your tactics, I _will_ have you in detention. I _will_ get my way Sammy, because what I want, I'll get, no matter what the circumstances are," Miss Patil threatened me. I cocked an eyebrow in mock surprise and stepped back cautiously.

"Whatever you say Miss Patil,' I told her as I rushed out of the room to my next class, science.

* * *

Because I 'ditched' science, I had to make up extra work for Ms. Rothhammer. Can't a girl get a break?

First, I had to stay there. While everyone else was doing work, I had to watch a video on the 'proper' way to dissect a frog. Ms. Rothhammer had kept a close eye on me as I tried my best not to fall asleep. As it turns out, the blade wasn't supposed to be 'held at an angle.'

Great.

Then after a double dosing of English, I had lunch detention with Ms. Rothhammer along with Heather. We, from watching the movie, had to properly dissect the frog and identify its body parts. Trust me, I'd have taken Mystery Meat in the cafeteria anytime.

After I snuck a few bites of good ol' PB&J and a period of lecturing from Mrs. Ambler about going to the best high school we can possibly go to, I had gym.

Can you say freedom?

I couldn't wait for softball season to start. Since Heather was supposed to be registered at another school, she's no longer on the team. Because of her and her stupid tactics, last year, she cost the whole team the Championships. Basically, she frame Marissa and me for vandalism and the players who took our places basically sucked, so, I couldn't wait for softball season to start. I also wanna try out for captain, since I'm an eighth grader.

I guess that's the only perk about being head honcho of the campus this year.

"Welcome back everyone!" Ms. Rothhammer said to us enthusiastically.

"Hi Coach," we all replied.

"Now this season, we need a captain. Being captain is more than just a privilege. Being captain means more responsibility. It means more practicing, more cooperative teamwork, more unity." We all stared at her.

"Sounds pretty much like how it is now," Marissa whispered to Dot and me. We cracked up silently.

"And now, without further wait, if the eighth graders would like to try out for captain, please sign your name on the clipboard that I'm passing around," Coach said as she passed the clipboard to Dot first. When Dot was finished, she passed it to Marissa. After an eternity later, Marissa passed the clipboard to me. I just signed it in my usual scrawl.

After all the eighth graders signed the clipboard, Coach warmed us up with what she called "light" warm-ups. During that, I took the opportunity to fill Dot and Marissa in on what Casey, Heather and Miss Patil all said to me.

"He wrote that?" Dot asked me. I nodded. Her response to that was, "I told you! You like him!"

"What?" I exclaimed. Marissa and Dot giggled at me as I gaped at them. What the hell is wrong with my friends? "That's not funny!" I told them snappishly.

"He wrote you a _love_ letter. What else could that possibly mean?" Marissa asked me. I continued to stare at them.

"Okay, give me as many pushups as possible in two minutes people!" Coach told us. We instantly dropped to the floor and began our pushups.

"But that doesn't mean that I like him back," I told them, aggravated because I knew exactly what they were going to tell me next.

"But you kept his letter in your pocket!" they said. I groaned.

I knew it.

"Guys, seriously, what makes you think that I like him? Huh? Give me one good reason."

"You blush when he's around you, even when you're mad at him," Dot said.

Okay, give me _two_ good reasons.

"And you kept his horseshoe that he gave to you," Marissa said to me.

Give me _three_ good reasons.

"And, you don't pull away when he holds your hand," Dot said again.

"Or when he holds you close while singing to you!" Marissa finished, putting the cherry on top.

I felt my face flush, but nonetheless I said, "Stop it, the both of you! I do not make a big deal out of things when he… holds my hand or… _me_." I bit my lip and thought about what I just said. Did I really do that? Well, sometimes, I did that, but to hell with admitting that!

"Time's up people! Now give me a ten minute jog," Coach shouted at us. We got up and jogged around aimlessly, practically out of breath.

"Yes, you do Sammy! It's true!" Marissa said to me. I scowled as Dot nodded in agreement.

"Well, even if you don't like him, you can't hide the fact that he likes you Sammy," Dot started again.

"Yeah! He wrote '_love _Casey.' Twice!" Marissa stated.

I glowered at her. "Thanks, you're a big help, really." My voice dripped with sarcasm.

"We know!" Marissa and Dot said, sealing the deal. I groaned again and picked up my pace, which separated me a good deal from their squealing and squawking.

After the ten-minute jog, we were given five minutes to rest, which meant five minutes to clear my head.

"Sammy!" Coach said to me, startling the peace I had (for the moment). "Your grandmother called. She needs you to go home immediately. She mumbled _something_ about your father," she mumbled the last part. That's all I needed to hear. I was on my skateboard in a flash, dashing my way to the senior High-rise.

* * *

I got there in ten minutes flat, and the ball hadn't swung past the bat, according to my watch. If Grams mentioned my father, I definitely needed to know. So, up the fire escape to the fifth floor is where I went. I was shocked to see my mom pacing around in the hallway.

"Mom! What are you doing here?" I asked not-so-politely.

"Samantha, darling!" my mom said while coming over to hug me. I instantly decided that she's up to something. So, I sidestepped her and went to Grams.

"Grams, what's goin' on?"

"Come inside child," she told me and pushed me inside the apartment. None other than my precious Dorito greeted me. "You, too Lana. Inside," Grams demanded.

I went to sit on the couch and was greeted by your highness.

_Sergeant_ Borsch.

He did a double take when he saw me. "Uh oh," we said in unison.

Lady Lana and Grams joined the room and sat down tentatively. Lady Lana looked back and forth between Borschman and me. Then she shook her head. Grams sighed exasperatedly.

"Lana, please! The more you stall, the angrier she'll be," Grams demanded of her.

"Mother," Lady Lana said.

"_Mother_!" I echoed to her. She glowered at Grams and me.

"Okay, Samantha, you wanted to know who your father is, right?" Lana said.

"You're finally gonna tell me who my father is?" I jumped up, knocking a shocked Dorito to the floor. He yowled but crawled back into my lap and purred.

"I suppose you're old enough to know, yes," she replied.

"Finally!"

"But, you must be prepared for the shock that may come with that knowledge," she warned me.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." I was starting to get impatient with her stalling.

"Okay, first of all, though you were very much uh… unplanned, I still love you very much," she began. I rolled my eyes.

"And your father has been thinking about you very much. But his raising you would have deprived him of his initial job," she continued. I saw Officer Borsch nod a little bit at me.

"So that's why I put him as 'unreported' on your birth certificate. But he's not unknown to you, not from what I hear."

"So without further delay, Lana," Grams said impatiently. She could sense that I was aching to know already.

"Don't push me mother," Lady Lana said. "Well, let's just say that your father has as much authority over you as I do."

I rolled my eyes and added, "_And_ Grams."

"Yes, and your grandmother, but that's beside the point, Samantha. The point is, Samantha, is that you know your father a lot more than you think."

"I _do_?" I'm shocked now. "How?"

"Well, the thing is, Samantha, we were… involved for a while and we got very much carried away and…"

"Mom! Would you stop stalling and tell me already!" I shouted angrily.

"I'm getting there Samantha!"

"You're not getting there fast enough, mom! I wanna know!"

"Samantha, please don't scream at your mother," Grams said.

Officer Borsch cleared his throat harshly, which got us to stop bickering for the moment. "Now Sammy, Your mother has a very good reason for being nervous about who your father is, so please be patient."

"Oh, like you'd know, Officer Borsch," I said snappishly.

"He _does_ know," Grams mumbled.

"Right Grams, likely story," I continued. "Next thing you know, you'd probably tell me that Officer Borsch is my _dad_." Lady Lana, Grams, and Officer Borsch clamped their mouths shut and looked guiltily from one another. "What? I was only _joking_."

"Samantha, please! Be more serious about this. I said it was an accident!" Lady Lana said seriously.

My face did a complete 360 in less than 2.8 seconds. "Wait a minute, wait a minute. You mean to tell me that…"

"Yes, Samantha. He is indeed your father," she said to me.

You see how my mother treats me? First, she sweet-talks you. Then, she lowers a huge, life changing KABOOM! This is exactly how I found out that she put me in school a year early and making me think that I was left back, when she only chucked me into school and started her fetish with 'being a movie star.'

I could say nothing. All I managed to do was stare and gape. I closed my mouth, only to open it again, completely astounded and at a loss for words. Finally, I managed a real intelligent, "Huh?" I looked at Officer Borsch again and I noticed something. He furrowed his eyebrows in the same exact way I did. Then, _only_ then, did the truth sink in. I was a mini Borsch!

"I'm gonna go lie down for a while Grams," I said softly. I went to Grams' room and changed my clothes. I then collapsed on her bed, numb with shock. I can't believe Officer Borsch is my _father_!

* * *

**A/N:** So yeah… Sammy has a dad! Well, I mean… she's always had a dad, but you know what I mean. This comes into play later down the line as the story progresses, so bear with me. And I look forward to everyone's reactions and thoughts. Speaking of thoughts, if you have them, leave a review. I'll try to answer any from registered users. Thanks so much!


	6. Big Changes

**Disclaimer: **I promise I really don't own Sammy Keyes. I'm not Wendelin Van Draanen (pronounced Draah-Nen). I am working on some of my own personal stuff too, but other than that, fat chance! So no, I don't own.

**Author's Note:** Beyond Sammy having a dad, this chapter explores something I've been wondering the entire series if she's ever been experiencing: _puberty_. With that said… enjoy!

* * *

**Six: Big Changes**

_The Night Before_

_Officer Borsch cleared his throat harshly, which got us to stop bickering for the moment. "Now Sammy, Your mother has a very good reason for being nervous about who your father is, so please be patient."_

_"Oh, like you'd know, Officer Borsch," I said snappishly._

_"He does know," Grams mumbled._

_"Right Grams, likely story," I continued. "Next thing you know, you'd probably tell me that Officer Borsch is my dad." Lady Lana, Grams, and Officer Borsch clamped their mouths shut and looked guiltily from one another. "What? I was only joking."_

_"Samantha, please! Be more serious about this. I said it was an accident!" Lady Lana said seriously._

_My face did a complete 360 in less than 2.8 seconds. "Wait a minute, wait a minute. You mean to tell me that…"_

_"Yes, Samantha. He is indeed your father," she said to me._

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"Wake up Samantha," Grams said to me as she shook me gently. I was on the couch and it was time for school.

"Okay," I responded grumpier than intended. My stomach felt in knots and it hurt to sit up. Suddenly, I glanced at a dark spot on the couch below me and wondered where it came from. Just then, I noticed an identical spot on my pants. "Uh-oh," I said to myself. Unfortunately, Grams heard me and came over to where I was. She gasped and fluttered around aimlessly. "What Grams, what is it?" I wondered impatiently as she began pacing.

"Change out of those clothes and take a shower, quickly!" she bossed me. I got up (very painfully at that) and went to get ready for school. While I was in the bathroom, Grams handed me something in a yellow wrapping; it was what I had been dreading the most since Lady Lana mentioned it to me when I was ten (well, actually, I was nine, thanks to her). Grams handed me a sanitary napkin.

I changed into it and took a bite of oatmeal, told Grams bye ("Bye-bye sweetie and take that Advil like I told you," she added.) and skated on my skateboard in howling pain. Cramps, she said I'd feel, and felt them I did. I stopped a few times to crouch down in pain, so it took twice as long to get to school.

I slipped into homeroom just as Mrs. Ambler took attendance. "Samantha, are you okay?" she asked me gently.

"I'm fine," I snapped unintentionally. Everyone glanced up at me.

"She just asked Sammy. Gosh, you don't have to be so rude about it!" Tawnee Francisco said to me. I glared at her in response. After homeroom, I went to math.

"Can anyone please tell me how to solve any of the equations on paper?" Miss Patil shouted at us. We stared at her blankly. "Anyone?"

"Can anyone please tell me how she got caught teaching math? Anyone?" I mumbled to Marissa.

"Sammy? Do you know how to solve yX^2+5X-36?" Miss Patil asked me. I glared at her as she held out the chalk for me. I got up, walked to the front of the room (ouch!) and snatched the chalk away from her. I stood there, thoroughly embarrassed and in pain. "You have to figure out what two terms when added together will give you 5X and when multiplied together gives you negative 36," she explained in a rush.

Huh? She's talking gibberish now.

"Can you repeat that please?" I asked as calmly as my pride could muster.

"I _said_," Miss Patil exasperated as half of the class giggled at me, "what two numbers can you have when, if added together, you'll get five and, when you multiply them, you'll get negative 36?"

I thought. And thought. And thought. Well, when four subtracts from nine, you get five and…

Wait a minute!

"Seriously Miss Patil, do you really expect us to learn this in the eighth grade? Are you even following the curriculum?" I challenged her.

Everything just stopped. It was so quiet; you could actually hear the bugs skittering across a leaf branch. It was _that_ quiet. Everyone gaped at me. Even Miss Patil looked angered, but so what?

"Do you want to let Mr. Caan in on my teaching methods, Samantha?" she asked, squaring off in my face.

"I should!" I said defiantly as we started a staring contest. "Do you even know what you are doing?" We never broke eye contact.

"I know exactly what I am doing. I am a certified 8th grade math teacher. I have my degrees," she said snobbishly.

"Are you sure about that?" I asked. She blinked in surprise, signifying that I won. I wrote: (X-4) (X+9) on the board and sat down again (ouch!).

Marissa, Dot and Holly stared at me and smiled. I could only muster out a pathetic one in return.

After math, science, and art, I was at the cafeteria table waiting for my friends,

"Sammy?" Marissa approached me with caution.

"It's okay Marissa, I'm not mad at you," I laughed as she sat down and began to unwrap her lunch. "You won't believe what Lady Lana did this time," I said angrily.

Marissa paused while in the process of taking a bite of hamburger. "W-what did she do this time?"

"Yeah, what other secret could your wacky mother hide from you?" Holly asked me as she sat down with her own lunch. At least her face regained its regular color. I assumed she wasn't upset anymore; at least she didn't make it noticeable.

"You will never, ever believe this!" I said to them.

"What? Tell us!" Marissa, Dot (just walked in) and Holly said to me.

I took a deep breath and said, "Well, remember how I told you that Officer Borsch said he never liked children, but if he had one like me, he wouldn't trade her for the world?"

"Yeah. Wasn't that after we discovered those missing cats back in April?" Holly asked me. I cringed but nodded. "Well, what about that?"

"Well, let's just say that… he had no reason to trade me now," I said. They blinked at me. Only Marissa got the message.

"That is so deeply messed up," she said. Holly and Dot had questionable looks on their faces.

"What I mean is that I'm a mini Officer Borsch!" Their eyes practically popped from their sockets.

"Whoa now. Your mom… and Officer Borsch… were _together_?" Dot asked politely. I nodded. "Wow," was all she could say.

"Oh wow Sammy," Holly said mercifully.

"I know!" I wailed. "I can't believe it either. Apparently, while I was asleep one day, they took DNA samples of me and matched to someone in the Police Department. Somehow, it linked right to Officer Borsch."

"Ew! What if they 'rendezvous' again and…?" Marissa started. The four of us pushed away our lunches in disgust. "But is that why you're acting so snappish today?"

"NO! After the shock of all that, puberty finally hit," I said. Marissa inched her food even further from her contact. "What a week!"

"And it's only gonna get worse," Holly said as her eyes followed something. We followed her gaze and saw Heather, Tenille, and Monet approaching our table.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the geekiest, rudest, most vicious eighth graders in all history of geeky, rude, vicious eighth graders," Heather started.

"How nice of you to describe yourself to us. Too bad we don't care," Holly said snobbishly. Heather's face turned all sorts of red.

"Wow Sammy, I didn't know you could hand out with such losers!" Heather continued.

"Losers!" Tenille and Monet echoed her. The four of us gaped at her. I thought Marissa and Dot were losers for hanging out with _me_?

Heather plopped herself right between me and Dot and smirked. "Sammy, let me tell you something about how junior high works. You come in, you pick your friends wisely and you climb to the top. If you chose the _wrong_ friends, you miss out on all the great stuff and you are sucked into a pit of shame like your classless loser friends.

"So listen, my brother and I are having the biggest and best party in the century of parties. Loads of high school cuties and everything. Casey would love for you to come. Maybe Marissa too, but other than that, no one else. Be there or be square." And with that, Heather and her pack of hyenas followed her.

"Was that weird, or was that weird?" Dot asked as her face was pinched into a frown.

"Definitely," we agreed. Marissa couldn't help but blush.

"Maybe Danny will be there," she said.

"Yeah, well, we'll never know," I said to her. She cocked an eyebrow at me. "Because we won't be there to see him. We are not going to her 'party of the century'," I concluded. Now it was Marissa's turn to pout at me.

"But Sammy, she said Casey will want you there," she tried to convince me.

"Just like she said that he'd rather kiss a codfish last year, was that even true?" Dot asked, smirking her head off.

"Well, no… but—"

"I think we should crash her 'party of the century,'" Holly said.

"Yeah! And we should find out some pretty wild things about her Royal Rudeness in Red," Dot added, "like if she picks her nose or something."

Marissa, who finally managed a bite of hamburger, spat it out promptly. "EW!" she said in disgust.

I shook my head indignantly. "No, I don't want to, okay? Look, we're eighth graders now; we should at least start acting like it. We should let things in the past stay a thing in the past."

Even though I'm _dying_ to know whether or not she practices kissy faces in her mirror.

She probably does, but no one will ever know.

The three of them glared at me. "Ma'am, who are you, and what have you done with our snoopy Sammy Keyes?" Holly asked.

Marissa poked at my face. "Oh, this is Sammy all right." She slapped a hand on my forehead. "She's more loopy than snoopy."

"Get away!" I told her while smiling.

"Please Sammy? We just have to go to that party! We just have to!" Dot pleaded.

"Well then, why don't _you_ guys go without me, huh? Look, I'm crampy, I'm cranky, I'm hurt all over, and I'm achy! I am _not_ emotionally stable for this party, you guys! Just… just go on without me, okay?" I whined.

They all turned to each other and shared a secret look.

* * *

Too bad I wasn't "firm" enough for them. I got sucked into their sick and twisted plot.

Crap!

So, Dot is a "flower gypsy," Marissa is a genie ("'I dream of Jeannie' is my inspiration," says Marissa as I rolled my eyes), and Holly is herself (figures). As for me, I'm the Ice Monster of the Marshmallow Marsh, only 'cause I managed to get while spray paint and not green. Don't worry, I learned my lesson from the last time, trust me.

We were all walking to Heather's house and when we got there, we rang the doorbell. Guess who answers the door?

Her mom.

Now, from what I remember of Candi Acosta, she had flamin' red hair, lime green spandex (and I'm talking lime green) tights and some wacky shirt.

This time, her hair was jet black; she had on a really bright pink colored shirt that was too teensy weensy, bright yellow neon spandex and indigo knee-length boots.

"Are you here for Heather or Casey?" Candi demands snootily.

"We're here for Casey," I say with even more sass than she does.

She glared and held the door open for us. Boy was this party a riot! No less than forty beer bottles and cans were on the floor, high school seniors were doing a little more than swapping spit and playing tongue tennis with each other, three high school wannabes busied themselves in making and smoking tobacco products. As the four of us stepped further inside (and noticed how much sticky film laid on the floor), we realized that the high school wannabes were Tenille Toolee, Monet Jarlsberg, and…

"Casey?" I asked when I saw a mass of his brownish-reddish hair.

He paused in mid puff and noticed me (and I was suddenly aware of my ridiculous Ice Monster from the Marshmallow Marsh costume, if that's what you called it). "Hey Sammy, how's it hangin'?" he asked me.

Actually, I'm not entirely sure that it _was_ Casey.

I looked left and right and noticed that my friends were nowhere to be found. I felt time slow way down as he approached me; those muscular shoulders, those long legs, those delicious pair of chocolaty hazel brown eyes (**A/N**: at this moment in time, if you're a Simpsons fan, you'd have to imagine that Sammy did Homer Simpson's famous drooling sound)…

Wait, I have to snap out of my daze!

I blushed ferociously as he gave me a hug. No matter how red my face turned under my white mask, I couldn't ignore the horrid stench that filled my nostrils.

"Cool costume," he remarked as my nose twitched.

"You smoke? Since when?" I asked him.

"Since…" he stared, but someone yanked me from him and in front of a punch bowl.

"Sammy!" Marissa said as she shoved a cup of fruit punch in my face. "Why were you talking to him?"

"Who?" I asked her.

She gave me a quizzical look. "Um… Taylor Briggs?"

"He's actually gotten really cute over the summer," said Dot as she blinked a bunch through her bat wings (a.k.a. mascara). "Boy, this stuff's good." Dot gulped down her cup as if she was about to die of thirst and grabbed another cup.

"Dot!" Marissa, Holly and I exclaimed.

"What?" she asked and let out a huge burp. "Sorry!"

Holly eyed her, took up a glass as I began a sip of my own. Then she swirled her cup around and sniffed it. "You guys, this is, like, completely spiked with alcohol!"

Marissa and I spat out our sip and dropped our cups to the floor. Dot, however, drank at least two more cups before Holly abruptly slapped her drink from her hand.

Dot looked almost appalled and shouted, "What did you do that for?"

"Oh, boy. This chick's a mean drunk," Holly said as she hitched a thumb to her.

"I'm…I'm _drunk_?" Dot asked. We nodded. "Cool," she remarked and walked (or rather swayed) away from us.

"Oh, my God! I already had three big cups!" Marissa and did the McKenze dance. "But I'm really thirsty…" she started as she grabbed another glass. Holly slapped it away from her and glared.

"C'mon, let's go puke the alcohol from the system before it sinks in," holly said as she dragged Marissa to the bathroom. I heard Marissa ask about Dot and Holly responded with, "She's already a lost cause…"

* * *

What feels like a whole hour passes and I was already aching to go home. I still had cramps from… that special friend of mines, my face felt sticky and hot, and I saw Dot dance all freakishly with at least four high school kids. One of them was being Taylor. Holly had already fallen asleep and Marissa was nowhere to be found. I heard a glass break and some idiots chanting, "chug, chug, chug," over and over again. I shook my head in disbelief.

"Hey Sammy!" I heard someone tell me. I turned around to face Casey.

"Uh…" I said, getting up and nervously backing away from him. "I… I… I…" I ran to the bathroom and locked it.

I saw that the time on their wall and saw that it was only 8:15pm. Wait, I was here for only twenty minutes?

Will this night never end?

I used the bathroom and came back outside to see Heather's room door opened. Now, my stomach is telling me not to go inside; I have no energy left for snooping. But my head, however, is telling me 'go snoop, what's the worst that can happen?' As usual, my curiosity gets the best of me.

I go inside and observe. She still had that ridiculous cow bedding on her itsy-bitsy bed. Basically, to sum it up, nothing really changed. I went under the bed (ouch!). Found nothing. Looked in her drawers. Found nothing. I checked in her closet. Nothing! Zip, zilch, nada!

I gave up and laid on her bed, but it felt kinda wrinkly underneath the bedspread. What did I do? I folded over the sheets and saw several brochures for Santa Luisa Junior High. I looked through them.

Peculiar, very peculiar.

See, now that I figured out her plan, how was I ever gonna expose her? I didn't care whether or not she wants to "be my friend" and whatnot.

During my look through, I didn't know someone was in the room until it was too late.

"Sammy! What are you doing here?" Heather asked me. Gulp!

I slid her brochures under the bed and turned to face her. Is it possible to melt into a goop of embarrassment right now?

"I uh… uh," I started.

I was a genius… but then again…

Did she even _need_ an explanation from me?

"Casey wants to talk to you," she said.

"Uh," I started again.

"C'mon Sammy, go talk to Casey," she said and dragged me out her room. She practically yanked me in the path of Casey, which therefore explains why I ran smack-dab into his chest.

"Hey Sammy," he greeted me. I felt lightheaded around him. He began dancing me across his sticky floor. Where did he get his grace? Last time I remembered, we both sucked at dancing. Farewell dance, remember?

OY!

I cleared my throat and said nothing for all of three seconds before: "Freeze! Cut the music and freeze!"

Everything just stopped in a heartbeat, and you better believe that mines skipped about… a lot!

A big, muscled up officer came and entered the household. He scanned around the beer bottles. "Gil, get in here!"

My heart did a lurch when none other than Gil Borsch entered right behind muscles.

"Is there any type of adult supervision here at all?" asked Daddy Borsch. Ugh! My father, the cop?

This is entirely the stupid bat I call my mother's fault. All of it!

Candi Acosta managed to re-enter her trashed living room while holding the hand of… some random high school kid. I scrunched up my face in disgust. I guess Casey saw it too, 'cause he dropped me onto his sticky, film-covered floor faster than you can say 'drop' in the middle of a semi-romantic dip.

"Yes, I am the adult. Who's askin'?" Candi asked with plenty o' attitude.

"The Santa Martina police force," Borsch replied with even more attitude. Candi's face and hand fell rapidly. "You, ma'am, are under arrest for alcohol possession, promoting underage drinking, endangering the welfare of children among many, many, many other misdemeanors and possibly felonies. You have the right to remain silent; anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law," he started and fed her the rest of the rights as everyone else scrambled before phone numbers can be taken down. Only Casey, Marissa, Dot, Holly, Heather and I remained unchanged.

"You can't arrest my mother! I'll sue!" Heather shouted. "I'll sue for… for… for… for…for…for…for…for…"

Heather let out a barbaric screech and lunged for Sergeant Borsch and planted punches in his pudgy stomach. He let out an "oomph" and let go of Candi Acosta. Candi then began running all over her living room trying to ditch the Borschman and his partner (I guess). All the while, Marissa, Casey and I watched in horror as Holly and Dot were passed out on the couch.

Finally, Marissa puts herself in front of Candi and shoved her toward me, who accidentally tripped her right into Muscles.

"Gotcha!"

"Noooooooooooooo!" wailed Candi as she was led away by Muscles. Officer Borsch remained. When Muscles came back, he held another pair of handcuffs and walked over to Heather.

"Noooooooooooooo!" screeched Heather, but she was easily handcuffed. "I'm gonna sue! Just you wait!"

Shut up!" said Borsch. When that was done, Officer Borsch scanned the area and finally saw me on the floor. "Sammy, I thought you knew better."

"I do!" I said as I tried to peel myself off the sticky film. It took Borsch and Marissa to help me up.

"Then why Sammy?" he asked me.

"Why what?" I snapped.

"Why do you always get tangled up in this sort of mess? Why do you always place yourself and your friends in danger?"

What?

"I do not always place them in trouble and trouble goes around looking for _me_!" I complained.

"Well, just be careful in what you do next time Sammy."

"Why do you all of a sudden care, Officer Borsch? You never cared before, remember? I'm a snot nosed kid? Well, guess what? I am not a snot nosed seventh grade kid. If you must insist, I'm an eighth grader, okay? I have absolutely neither patience _nor_ tolerance for your stupid crap or your accusations! I am on my bloody and crampy period and I WANNA GO HOME! NOW!" I screamed. Casey and Marissa stared in shock and I woke up Dot and Holly.

"Huh? Where am I mommy?" Dot said groggily.

"Meg, Vera?" Holly said.

"Fine, I'll drop you home, because I care Sammy. I have a right to care, don't I?" he said calmly.

"Only biologically!" I screamed at him. I stared him down. Then he sighed.

"Everyone, gather your stuff," he said as he avoided eye contact with me.

We all piled up into the squad car, feeling bunched up. Just then, Casey pulled me on his lap and there was suddenly more space. Marissa sent suggestive looks and I glared.

"Hey! Why don't we all stay at me house. I don't mind. I've got plenty of space, no problem," offered Marissa. So we each called our parents ("Dad! You won't believe it, mom got arrested!" laughed Casey as we harshly cleared our throats), got sleeping clothes and all went to Marissa's house (if you wanna call it that) on East Jasmine. Casey had to sleep in a different room, but the girls got to stay up.

"Casey let you sit on his lap!" said Marissa, which thus turned the conversation to "talk about Sammy and Casey." In response, I pulled the covers over my head and fell asleep.

* * *

"Wake up Sammy!" someone shook me awake. It was Holly.

"Huh?" I mumbled.

"School, remember?" she said.

Crap!

Well, at least it was Friday, right?

I got up, showered, dressed, and went to eat breakfast with everyone.

"Ooh, Marissa had a boy in the house! Ma!" screeched Mikey early in the morning.

"Can it, you pudgy boy! Stop shouting!" Dot said meanly. We turned to look at her and giggled. "Gosh, Marissa, are you ever gonna answer you phone?"

"The phone isn't ringing, Dot," Marissa told her.

"Well, _something_ is," she replied.

"I think you need not go to school today," Holly told her.

"Hey, what about me?" I wondered. Holly shrugged. "I'm crampy!" I whined.

"Take some Advil them," piped in Casey as he held out his hand and offered me two pills. "And Dot, here, you need some too."

"What for? She asked but took the pills anyway.

"Because you have the meanest hangover ever," said Holly.

"Why?" she asked. "What's a hangover?"

"A hangover is the aftermath of being drunk," I explained.

"What'd I get drunk for?" she mumbled. We giggled at her and got ready for school.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! _Marissa_, where'd you get that top from?" asked Holly to Marissa.

"Yolanda's closet, of course," she replied.

A few minutes later, after I set Dot straight on hangovers ("Damn, I can't believe I got drunk!") and Holly set Marissa straight on her outfit, we were out the door. Holly, Dot, Casey, and I rode our skateboards as Marissa rode her bike. A few blocks from the school and we ended up losing Marissa and her bike. Casey had to go to school and the rest of us ventured the trip to school.

* * *

The first half of the day went by dully. Homeroom, announcements ("Run for class president," mumbled Mrs. Ambler bitterly.), science, art, a new beginning of Spanish and finally, lunch came.

"What happened to Marissa?" Holly asked me.

I shrugged. "She's been gone since this morning," I said. Holly's facial expression changed completely. I followed her gaze to see Miss Patil coming towards our table. I rolled my eyes.

"Samantha, whatever your middle name is, Keyes!" she shouted.

"It's Jo," I said calmly. "My middle name is Jo."

"WHATEVER!" Miss Patil screeched at me. I blinked at her. "I will have you put in juvie just like you had my precious niece get taken away to juvie!" she continued to squawk. Everything just froze in our busy cafeteria.

"Lady, what could you possibly be talking about now?" I shouted at her.

"You put my niece in juvie and my sister in jail!" she screamed at me. Holly shrugged her shoulders in confusion.

"Miss Patil, I don't even know your niece or your sister!" I tried to say calmly, but I was already in pieces.

"Yes, you do!"

"No, I don't!" I screamed.

Finally, she whipped out a picture of Candi, Heather, Casey and herself. "Look, it's me, my sister Candice, my niece Heather, and my nephew Casey. You put my sister in jail because of your stupid tactics! You will pay Sammy Keyes, oh, yeah. I will make you pay!"

As she sauntered away and pushing an excited Dot in the process ("Watch it!" Dot yelled.), Holly and I gaped in shock.

"Ew, a Candi Acosta clone!" Holly said while she scrunched up her face in disgust.

"I _knew_ she looked like someone I know," I said in agreement.

Dot slid into the bench and panted for breath. "Guys! I saw Marissa!"

I cocked a curious eyebrow at her. "Okay," I said slowly. Dot dropped her lunch, got up and dragged us towards the patio. "Dot! It's cold out there!"

"So?" she said as we bundled up and followed her.

And there she was, all "grown" and whatnot. "_Marissa_!" the three of us said to her.

* * *

**A/N:** So… there you have it. First, a dad for Sammy, and now her… monthly visitor. Gee, I wonder what _else_ can happen to Sammy, huh? *Evil snickers*

Reviews are much appreciated. Thanks!


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